Radiation therapy is presently one of the major options for treatment of cancer. As well known in the art, radiation therapy involves radiating cancer growths and tissue sites in order to kill the cancer and prevent its spread throughout the body. This therapy is typically used for many different kinds of cancer, including those cancers attacking the internal organs of a human such as the prostate gland, uterus, and pelvic lymph nodes. Because of the obvious harmful effects of radiation which is inadvertently exposed to healthy tissue, there has been much effort in the prior art directed to preventing this from occurring. Principally, this effort has been directed to more exactly locating the tissue site intended to receive the therapy, and more precisely irradiating that site with a controlled energy beam. Efforts in these areas continue. However, because of the dynamic nature of the human body, and the present limitations of radiation techniques, there still remains a significant risk of injury or morbidity for body organs or tissues surrounding the cancerous site.
In an effort to advance the art in this area, and to aid in minimizing, and in some instances even eliminating, inadvertent and unintended radiation of healthy organs and tissues, the inventors herein have succeeded in designing and developing a surgical implant for temporary implantation for separating or isolating healthy tissues and organs from cancerous tissues and organs. This implant is radiolucent, even at radiation levels significantly below that ordinarily used for many kinds of radiation treatment, and is essentially comprised of an inflatable bladder having a valve which permits the bladder to be filled in situ with a radiolucent filler material. With the implant of the present invention, not only is there achieved a clear separation between the healthy and unhealthy tissue sites, but the implant is virtually invisible to the therapy so that virtually no adjustment in the therapy is required when the implant is used. As is well known in the art, radiation therapy protocol involve a series of treatments each of which comprises the timed irradiation of a tissue site with a very carefully calculated radiation dosage. These calculations can be quite sensitive in order to reliably kill the cancerous growth while at the same time minimizing injury and morbidity to surrounding healthy tissue. The use of the implant of the present invention will have minimal effect on these calculated radiation therapy protocols.
The implant's position may also be readily monitored by x-ray and will also permit the continued use of x-ray to view those tissue sites desired to be viewed as the implant is virtually transparent at these reduced energy levels used for x-ray as well. Therefore, the implant may be readily and effectively used without interfering with either the therapy itself, or a monitoring of the tissue sites to determine the effects of therapy as therapy progresses.
The implant is itself comprised of a generally elastomeric bladder with a one-way fill valve. The bladder may be made of a silicone/polyurethane composite and the filler material may be a highly purified and sterile neutral triglyceride derived from soybean oil. Alternative materials may also be used, as explained below. The bladder may be readily filled via a silicone rubber fill tube which mates with the diaphragm one-way fill valve in the bladder/shell. The proximal end of the fill tube may mate with a triglyceride containing fill cartridge, or a fill gun or syringe may be used to deliver the filler material into the bladder/shell. The size and/or shape of the bladder may be readily sized and fitted to the particular tissue site and application. No particular size and/or shape is required in order to achieve the benefits of the present invention.
As noted above, the implant may be surgically implanted at the time of initial exploration or later as part of the therapy itself. Also, the implant may be implanted in an inflated and filled condition or may be implanted and filled in situ. Explantation may be via endoscopic means on an out-patient basis.
While the principal advantages and features of the invention have been explained above, a more thorough understanding may be attained by referring to the drawings and description of the preferred embodiment which follow.